I think the important part of this story is not that bodies were burned — our culture says that’s hygienic, not

desecration. What’s important it that we turned that against the Taliban, that we taunted them for being "women" — yes,

repeatedly. We have a "Psy-Ops", a concept worthy of 1984, a corp whose job it is to fuck with people heads. Who is to say we

don’t have a domestic version of the same?

It is stunning and almost hilarious that Rumsfeld has said he wants to get to the

bottom of this. The taunts could have been written by him and, whichever commanding officer did write them must have thought he was doing

what his bosses — Rumsfeld and Duhbya — want. We need for officers and soldiers to come forward, to say, to hell with the Commander-

in-Chief, your loyalty is to the nation. Tell us what these bastards are making you do! mjh

Alleged Desecration of Bodies

Investigated

U.S. Military Acts to Control Muslim Backlash After Incident in Afghanistan
By Bradley Graham,

Washington Post Staff Writer

Stephen Dupont, the Australian journalist who took the video, said the airborne troops who burned

the bodies indicated they had been ordered to do so purely to dispose of them. "They said to me, ‘We’ve been told to burn the

bodies because the bodies have been here for 24 hours and they’re starting to stink,’ " Dupont said in an interview on the

network’s Web site. "So for hygiene purposes, this is what we’ve got to do." It was later, he said, that the

from the Taliban, so the Taliban could attack them," he said. [mjh: who gave the order?]

USATODAY.com – Pentagon probing taped burning of bodies

Stephen Dupont, an Australian cameraman who shot the

video, said the troops who burned the bodies were U.S. Army paratroopers he joined during combat missions. He said that other American

soldiers used a loudspeaker later to goad Taliban members, calling them “cowardly dogs” and “lady boys” for not retrieving the bodies.

… Later, Dupont said, psychological operations troops gave the taunting statements over loudspeakers to anger and flush out other

Taliban.

A few conservative blogs take some delight in Democratic frustration at not

having the usual mugshot of Tom "The Hammer" DeLay ("I am the federal government"). Must be nice for DeLay to have

connections protecting him.

Actually, I’ll take the picture of the grinning fool who thinks he can fake his way out of this.

There are limits to "making your own reality." DeLay is a certifiable scoundrel who deserves shunning, if not imprisonment.

mjh

||

RedState.org

This is the best-looking mug shot I have ever seen. As such, it is an oddly compelling portrait of this oddly

compelling man at this oddly compelling moment in his life. On CNN this morning, correspondant (sic) Sean Callebs said, "[b]ut think

about it, at some point later today, pictures of DeLay’s mug shot could be plastered all over the TV, plastered all over the Internet.

Certainly something the GOP doesn’t want to see." Gosh, I’m not so sure. Tom DeLay has never looked better. He looks

bright, personable, confident–certainly not guilty. Who would have thunk a mug shot could turn out to be

good propaganda?

DeLay

Smile May Foil Democrat Campaign Ads

DeLay, an 11-term Texas congressman and former pest exterminator famous for enforcing

GOP loyalty, faced a tough reelection campaign even before the indictment.

In the 2004 elections, DeLay won 55 percent of the

vote, a relatively weak showing for a veteran House leader. His challenger next year is expected to be former Rep. Nick Lampson,

who lost his seat in 2004 after he was forced to run in a new district under a redistricting plan pushed by DeLay.

For his mandatory booking Thursday, which caused him to miss voting on a gun industry bill popular in his home state, DeLay

did everything he could to prevent images of the event from being committed to film.

mjh’s Blog: Counterpoint to Eulogies by Tim Wise

It’s why a bona fide

moron like Tom Delay can brag about not having a passport (because, after all, why would anyone want to travel abroad and leave

”Amur’ca,” even for a day) and not be seen as the epitome of a blithering idiot, and why he could probably be elected again and

again in thousands of white dominated congressional districts in this country, and not merely in Texas.

mjh’s Weblog Entry – 07/29/2003: "Contempt for the public" by

Paul Krugman

Another answer may be that in modern America, style trumps substance. Here’s what Tom DeLay, the House majority

leader, said in a speech last week: "To gauge just how out of touch the Democrat leadership is on the war on terror, just close your

eyes and try to imagine Ted Kennedy landing that Navy jet on the deck of that aircraft carrier." To say the obvious, that remark

reveals a powerful contempt for the public: Mr. DeLay apparently believes that the nation will trust a man, independent of the facts,

because he looks good dressed up as a pilot. But it’s possible that he’s right.

mjh’s Weblog Entry – 05/27/2003: "Tom Delay: "I am the federal

government.""

[Speaker of the House Tom] DeLay recently revealed how he felt about rules of general applicability.

When he tried smoking a cigar in a restaurant on federal property, the manager told him it violated federal law. His response, according

to The Washington Post, was, "I am the federal government."

For President

Under Duress, Body Language Speaks Volumes By Dana Milbank

[T]his much could be seen watching the tape of NBC’s broadcast

during Bush’s 14-minute pre-sunrise interview, in which he stood unprotected by the usual lectern. The president was a blur of

blinks, taps, jiggles, pivots and shifts. Bush has always been an active man, but standing with Lauer and the serene, steady

first lady, he had the body language of a man wishing urgently to be elsewhere. [mjh: need to go to the restroom?]

The fidgeting clearly corresponded to the questioning. … Bush blinked 24 times in his answer. … Bush

blinked 23 times and hitched his trousers up by the belt. … Bush blinked 37 times in a single answer — along with a

lick of the lips, three weight shifts and some serious foot jiggling.

Dead giveaway – smh.com.au

Another

supposed sign of lying is rapid blinking. It’s true that when we become aroused or our mind is racing, there’s a corresponding

increase in our blinking rate. Our normal rate is about 20 blinks per minute, but it can increase to four or five times that figure when

we feel under pressure. When liars are searching for an answer to an awkward question, their thought processes speed up. In this kind of

situation, lying is frequently associated with blinking. But we need to remember that there are times when people have a high blinking

rate, not because they’re lying, but because they’re under pressure. Also, there are times when liars show normal rates.

Fidgeting and awkward hand movements are also thought to be signs of deceit ….

How the Republicans Let It Slip Away By David Ignatius

What’s interesting is that most of these wounds are self-inflicted. They draw a picture of a party that, for all its

seeming dominance, isn’t prepared to be the nation’s governing party. The hard right, which is the soul of the modern

GOP, would rather be ideologically pure than successful. Governing requires making compromises and getting your hands

dirty, but the conservative purists disdain those qualities. …

Bush and the Republicans had a chance after 2004 to become the

country’s natural governing party. They controlled the White House and both houses of Congress. The Democrats were in utter disarray,

leaderless and idea-less. When Bush took the podium in January to deliver his soaring second inaugural address, the future seemed to

belong to the Republicans.

Bush squandered this opportunity by falling into the trap that has snared the modern GOP — of playing

to the base rather than to the nation. The Republicans behave as if the country agrees with them on issues, when that

demonstrably isn’t so. …

A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll in late August found 54 percent describing themselves as pro-

choice and only 38 percent as pro-life, roughly the same percentages as a decade ago.